Christmas Gift Tag Ornaments

It is no secret that I love handmade and anything custom and personal. Monica and Jess are back sharing a simple way to embellish some wood tags to give for Christmas. You can dress up a package or wrap them in a set for an ornament exchange. Simple, quick and under $10.

Hey everyone, it’s Jess and Monica from East Coast Creative again. We’re happy to be back sharing a quick and easy gift that is super cool (and super cheap)! When Beckie asked us to share a gift under $10, we immediately thought of this:

But then it dawned on us….oh, she wants a handmade gift for under $10! Silly us. (Now you know what WE want for Christmas!) Anyway, last year we tried our hand at lots of different DIY ornaments and thought it would be fun to try something new this year. You can easily make a set of six or eight of these wood tag ornaments for well under $10. Customize them with monograms, favorite phrases or fun Christmas images, and you’ll have a unique, one-of-a-kind gift for everyone on your list (ok, not your dad. He probably won’t appreciate these.)

What is liquid gilding, you ask? Well, according to Martha, Liquid Gilding is a one-step leafing paint that gives a rich, metallic luster to projects. We don’t really care what is is, we just love the look of it! Gilding gives your projects a high-end look and will make your friends think you spent tons of money on them (shhhh- we won’t tell)! Here’s what you need to do to make your own:

Supplies:

mini alphabet stamps

holiday stencils

metallic silver cording

silver liquid gilding

wood tags

spray paint / acrylic paint

You can find the wood tags at Michaels in the wood supplies section, as well as the liquid gilding which can be found with the Martha Stewart supplies. The alphabet stamps came from the Target dollar bins (LOVE those things!).

Step 1: Paint (or gild) the surfaces of your wood tags.

Some of ours were spray painted (the red and green) and others were painted with acrylic paint, and the rest were gilded.

Isn’t the gilding awesome?

Step 2: Create your designs!

We had fun coming up with lots of different tags that complemented each other. Be creative!

When working on a small surface, make sure you use painters tape to prevent paint from your stencil brush getting where you don’t want it. Also, good stencil brushes make a HUGE difference, especially when stenciling with liquid gilding. It’s very runny, and you’ll need a brush with stiff bristles to distribute it without it bleeding.

Step 3: Attach your cording or ribbon.

Some of our wood tags already had holes at the top. We wanted our ornaments to look uniform, so we hot glued the cording to the backs of the tags without holes, and threaded the cording through the holes on the others and hot glued it in place.

You’ll be left with lots of ridiculously cute ornaments and money in your pocket!

Hoard a few for your own tree Package them as a set and you have a gift that will wow the receiver!

We LOVE decorating for the holidays and have loads of DIY project tutorials we’d love to share with you from our Christmas episode on the Nate Berkus Show last year. Come on over and be inspired to get going on your holiday decor!

Great idea! I believe you’ve just saved me a ton of money on buying new ornaments for a small tree I want to put in our master bedroom. I want to decorate it in a way that, of course, I don’t have the colors and things I want already.